EDITORIAL: Off to a shaky honeymoon with Perry

It's more like when you look at your new partner and can't shake those nagging feelings.

Like "Maybe we should have dated a while longer" and "How well do I really know this guy?"

Just jitters, probably.

Give it time.

Newly elected politicians also deserve a grace period, a time to settle into office and gain their bearings, perhaps make a few mistakes in the beginning.

Unfortunately for Perry, a Republican from Dillsburg who replaced retiring longtime representative Todd Platts, one of his very first votes was a test of sorts for the new Congress.

After two years of bitter partisanship in Washington that bogged down even the most simple business, everyone wanted to know if the new Congress could put that behind.

On his first full day in the House, Perry was asked to vote on a watered-down, $9.7 billion emergency aid package for the East Coast victims of Hurricane Sandy, which shamefully wasn't even brought to the floor in the just-ended session.

All eyes were on this vote.

If the new representatives couldn't agree even on helping fellow Americans -- still waiting more than two months after the disaster -- it wouldn't bode well for the truly contentious work ahead.

Thankfully, it passed with bipartisan support.

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Compared to votes by the previous Congress, it wasn't even close. Three hundred and fifty-four Democrats and Republicans approved the measure, while just 67 Republicans opposed it.

Unfortunately, Perry was one of those no votes, saying the bill amounted to "political posturing" and "doesn't even help the people."

It's important to note the bill gave the National Flood Insurance Program more borrowing authority so it can pay about 115,000 claims for people whose homes and businesses were hit by the storm, as well as about 5,000 unrelated claims.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had warned that the program would run out of money this week if Congress didn't provide additional borrowing authority.

We'd say that bill is going to help people. And the only people posturing are those who try to deny that.

Was there pork in the Senate's $60 billion Sandy relief bill, the one the House failed to act on by session's end? By many accounts, yes.

But that wasn't the case with the $9.7 billion bill approved by the new House.

No, Perry and the other 66 Republicans who voted against it didn't blame pork. Instead, their beef was that the bill didn't cut spending to offset the emergency relief and that some of the funds wouldn't be available until 2014.

Did he not consider that these people trying to rebuild their lives need help now, will almost certainly need help a year from now and likely for years after that?

For example, aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina -- which was approved by Congress within 10 days, by the way -- is still being distributed seven years later.

Perry was no mystery to the voters of the 4th Congressional District, who should have been familiar with the conservative record he built in the state House of Representatives.

For last year's primary election, Perry raced a crowded GOP field to the right and won. However, he moved more to the center for the General Election, giving us hope that a more moderate Perry might be the one to represent us in Congress.

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